Posts Tagged devs

The Developer Economics 2013 report—a sort of State of the Union on app development—is out and it’s packed with helpful tidbits, both for armchair analysts and programmers trying to make some sense out of this crazy software world. One of the most interesting observations the survey showed is there is still demand for a third platform. And right now they’re getting it in a surprising place: on Blackberries.

Above is the graph of OSes that developers list as their “main” platform. That is not to say that any of them code exclusively for them, just that it is the primary target for attention.

It’s been awhile since we heard from ‘ol Googs regarding their plans for “Project Glass” but it turns out they haven’t forgotten about the project. Emails have gone out to “Glass Explorers,” developers who paid the exorbitant $1,500 entry fee for a chance to develop on the new hardware before anyone else.

Devs have until Friday, January 18th to pre-register for a 2-day hack-a-thon that will take place on either January 28th and 29th in San Francisco, or February 1st and 2nd in New York. During the first day, developers will be given their very own Glass hardware, learning the ins and outs of developing for the eyewear, with the second day dealing mostly with demos and even special guests.

Sounds like a lot of fun and since Phandroid’s own in-house developer will be attending the event, we’ll be bringing you the latest as it goes down (and most likely an early hands-on if you’re really good). Exciting stuff!

With only a few more sunsets to go before the holidays hit their peak, game devs have been pushing their holiday updates live all across Google Play. We’re going to find some of the cheeriest, jingliest, and jolliest among them, just in case you needed some help getting into the holiday spirit.

Seeing as the majority of top-grossing apps on the Play Store utilize In-app Billing, you can bet they will continue to revamp the tool to streamline it even more. Today the Android developers blog revealed a few changes in the latest version. Below is a summary of the major changes devs can expect to see:

A streamlined design that makes applications simpler to write, debug and maintain. Integrations that previously required several hundred lines of code can now be implemented in as few as 50.

More robust architecture resulting in fewer lost transactions.

Local caching for faster API calls.

Long-anticipated functionality such as the ability to consume managed purchases and query for product information.

I’m sure that’s all good news for devs. The good news for consumers is that it’s now even more easier for developers of apps to take our money. Wait, maybe that’s not so good.

Seeing as the majority of top-grossing apps on the Play Store utilize In-app Billing, you can bet they will continue to revamp the tool to streamline it even more. Today the Android developers blog revealed a few changes in the latest version. Below is a summary of the major changes devs can expect to see:

A streamlined design that makes applications simpler to write, debug and maintain. Integrations that previously required several hundred lines of code can now be implemented in as few as 50.

More robust architecture resulting in fewer lost transactions.

Local caching for faster API calls.

Long-anticipated functionality such as the ability to consume managed purchases and query for product information.

I’m sure that’s all good news for devs. The good news for consumers is that it’s now even more easier for developers of apps to take our money. Wait, maybe that’s not so good.

Seeing as the majority of top-grossing apps on the Play Store utilize In-app Billing, you can bet they will continue to revamp the tool to streamline it even more. Today the Android developers blog revealed a few changes in the latest version. Below is a summary of the major changes devs can expect to see:

A streamlined design that makes applications simpler to write, debug and maintain. Integrations that previously required several hundred lines of code can now be implemented in as few as 50.

More robust architecture resulting in fewer lost transactions.

Local caching for faster API calls.

Long-anticipated functionality such as the ability to consume managed purchases and query for product information.

I’m sure that’s all good news for devs. The good news for consumers is that it’s now even more easier for developers of apps to take our money. Wait, maybe that’s not so good.

Seeing as the majority of top-grossing apps on the Play Store utilize In-app Billing, you can bet they will continue to revamp the tool to streamline it even more. Today the Android developers blog revealed a few changes in the latest version. Below is a summary of the major changes devs can expect to see:

A streamlined design that makes applications simpler to write, debug and maintain. Integrations that previously required several hundred lines of code can now be implemented in as few as 50.

More robust architecture resulting in fewer lost transactions.

Local caching for faster API calls.

Long-anticipated functionality such as the ability to consume managed purchases and query for product information.

I’m sure that’s all good news for devs. The good news for consumers is that it’s now even more easier for developers of apps to take our money. Wait, maybe that’s not so good.

Seeing as the majority of top-grossing apps on the Play Store utilize In-app Billing, you can bet they will continue to revamp the tool to streamline it even more. Today the Android developers blog revealed a few changes in the latest version. Below is a summary of the major changes devs can expect to see:

A streamlined design that makes applications simpler to write, debug and maintain. Integrations that previously required several hundred lines of code can now be implemented in as few as 50.

More robust architecture resulting in fewer lost transactions.

Local caching for faster API calls.

Long-anticipated functionality such as the ability to consume managed purchases and query for product information.

I’m sure that’s all good news for devs. The good news for consumers is that it’s now even more easier for developers of apps to take our money. Wait, maybe that’s not so good.

Even though it might take a workaround to unlock the bootloader on the DROID DNA, HTC has taken to their developer portal to publish the source code for the device. This is only big news to a select few of our readers, but those developers take this information and make their custom ROMs that more [...]

With the Takju variant of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus received Android 4.2 last week, it’s now the Yakju’s turn. To be specific, this 4.2 update is for the international version of the Galaxy Nexus not purchased in the Play Store and you should be running build JZO54K as a prerequisite before updating. Along with the 4.2 update, Google was also nice enough to provide the factory images to go along with the update. The OTA should be hitting applicable devices soon, or you could always try to fetch the update yourself via setting/about phone.

You just cant keep the Android community down. When they want to get something done, they do whatever it takes. It has been no different with people’s demands to see Google Now brought to their non-Jelly Bean devices. Developers over at XDA are beginning to bring the new service to Ice Cream Sandwich devices, and [...]

Are you an Android developer with an app in Google Play? Do you have a Top Developer badge? Well rejoice, because starting right now Google will let select developers reply to user reviews right from the safety, warmth and comfort of the Android Developer Console — perfect for when you need to put the smackdown on those undeserving trolls give feedback to your beloved customers or share information about a new feature. Users are then notified by email about replies to a review and have the option to contact the developer directly. “Google continues to make investments in Google Play and we are excited to engage with our users through this new feature” said Autumn Brown, Android Account Director at EA. Google plans to extend the functionality to additional developers in the future. Isn’t dialogue wonderful? Screenshot and PR after the break.

Back when it was unveiled at IFA 2011, Sammy’s famed phablet was more of an attractive oddity than sure hit. Skip to now, and that 5.3-incher’s not only taken the European continent by storm, it’s also made inroads onto these American shores via AT&T. In keeping with the open source embrace begun last October, the OEM’s once again offering up the device’s kernel code, this time for the skinned ICS OS unlocked versions currently run. Devs and the amateur hackers that love them should make haste and hit up the source below to get cracking on this latest software nut.

Many new and veteran Android developers will be interested to learn that Sony Mobile has created a Device Loaner Program allowing devs to borrow one of nine Xperia handsets available for the sole purpose of app testing and development. The program is free and will provide a device for up to 30 days. It’s primarily aimed at North American devs but international devs can certainly take advantage of this cool program as well for only the cost of international shipping and custom/duty fees where applicable. I would imagine that most devs would jump at the idea of having a free Android handset for testing compatibility and stability issues. Jump past the break for a link containing more info and to see the current list of devices being offered on loan at this time.

A fortunate owner of a Motorola RAZR (not the the DROID version) jumped into fastboot to find that his device’s bootloader was showing as being “unlocked.” He claims that he has not unlocked the phone himself and would also not offer many other details as to how his phone got this way. From what we [...]

A fortunate owner of a Motorola RAZR (not the the DROID version) jumped into fastboot to find that his device’s bootloader was showing as being “unlocked.” He claims that he has not updated the phone recently or done anything in particular to unlock it, but that it simply came this way out of the box. [...]

We’re here at the AT&T Developers keynote and CTO John Donovan just revealed that the network is building AT&T Cloud Architect. It’s a developer-centric cloud that will help devs build cloud apps. There’s a full API coming soon with a flexible pricing structure: you can pay monthly or hourly depending on your needs. It’s also joining the OpenStack architecture, which Ma Bell’s gonna rely upon to support the platform — reportedly the first US telecom provider to do so. The company’s planning to optimize APIs to the extent that 10 billion API calls will be made before the end of 2012.

The source code dropping continues today with another release, this time by Samsung. I am not sure what the devs are going to do with all these new codes to play with. This will give the devs some much needed help in making these awesome tablets even better than they already are.

If you happen to be in the market for some source, head on over to links below to be taken to the appropriate download location. Happy coding, as always. We look forward to seeing your work.

When Google dropped the source for Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, we all got really excited. We knew the devs were equally if not more excited than we were. Even though it has been proven to be one of the biggest builds to date, we know the devs have some serious hardware sitting in their homes already to get to work. From everything we have heard this build is going to be a challenge, but one they will happily take on. So we sit and wait. That is all we can do. Constantly bugging the minds behind the biggest release to be ported ever is going to take time and dedication. So don’t ask for ETA’s from any of them, especially the CyanogenMOD team. That doesn’t stop them for teasing us when ever possible about something though.

Today, Steve Kondik, founder of CM, sent out a little goody that has to make everyone smile just a little. His tweet read – “and we’re off, check back in 2 months“. Typical Steve for ya. This doesn’t mean that a CM9 port will be ready for the masses in January. All it really means is they are working on it and we will all see it someday. It sure would be nice to see some alpha builds out before the end of December, but I won’t hold my breathe. They have done some pretty great things with the HP Touchpad in a fairly short time and they have a team of very talented people. So now we all sit, wait and hit refresh ever couple of weeks to see what the story is.

On a side note, I have seen a lot of people wonder why CM9 is on its way but there was no CM8. The answer to that is pretty simple really. If CM8 would have been possible it would have happened. CM8 would have been Honeycomb. Since that was build specifically for tablets and not really portable to handsets and Google never released the source code, it is being skipped. With Android 4.0, it was designed with both tablets and handsets in mind. Much like CM7.1 is located on various tablets and devices so will CM9.

We will keep an eye out for future news on the availability of nightlies, devices, requirements and all the other goodies you will all want to know when it comes time. Until then, let the guys do their thing and remember, when it does come time to install CM9, it will probably be the only chance your device will have for any ICS love at all.

We knew the minute that the Ice Cream Sandwich source code was released, thousands of Android devs were hard at work on ROMs, ports and other projects. It looks like YouTube user pfefferzlinaro gets to claim “first” on an ICS dev build: he’s released a video of Ice Cream Sandwich running from source on a PandaBoard, output to a monitor or small television. The build is extremely early and far from functional but it is, well, first.

A PandaBoard is an ARM system-on-a-chip computer that shares a lot of hardware components with common Android phones and tablets. It’s designed to be a developer test tool – essentially, it allows devs to test their Linux or Android apps (or in this case, operating systems) before moving on to more varied hardware. The developer in question has put together a quick and dirty version of Ice Cream Sandwich just to prove that is can be done. There’s still some interesting things to be seen here, mostly in that the horizontal resolution gives us the first good look at what ICS will be like on a tablet.

Check out the video for yourself below:

You can expect more useful versions of ICS to start appearing within the next few days and weeks. It’s a good bet that the Nexus S and Nexus One will see some very quick ports, with other popular devices to follow. That said, it’ll be a few weeks before any of these ports start approaching the level of daily drivers, so keep a Nandroid backup handy if you’re the tinkering type.

Everyone loves a good home replacement application. For some reason, the Chinese seem to be at the forefront of all things that are different and good. I’d like to think that those devs just have more time on their hands and aren’t smarter than us. Many would disagree with that statement, after all, we might be a super power, but on an education level we are pretty much last on the list. Look it up, you will see just house screwed we really are.

The launcher is a mix of QQLauncher, which is pretty similar to how MIUI is laid out and DXHome. Thanks to a lot of translating by XDA member melvinchng, we can all give this one a test. The application is extremely smooth and very fast. I gave it a test on my Vibrant which is already running MIUI. It really is a nice launcher. You get the traditional 54 icon dock, with the app drawer located in the center. Under the settings of the launcher you have 14 screen transition effects to choose from including cube, snake, cross fade and random. You can enable or disable the ability to go from the last screen to the first and if you want the wallpaper to scroll as well. You can set the home screen to be 4X4, 5X4 or 5X5. Allowing more widgets and icons on your screen at one time.

In the app drawer you can hit the menu button your device to get to more settings. Giving you options to sort your apps, add a new folder in your app drawer, hide certain apps and app drawer settings. This is where I became really excited about this launcher. You can set scroll to go from the last page of apps back to first and the usual icon layout of 4X4, 5X4 or 5X5 What really got me excited though is the fact that the app drawer has transition effects as well.

Most of that sounds a bit more like DXhome right? What about the MIUI aspect? Instead of forcing you to have all the apps on all of your screens like MIUI does, the home aspect of this launcher is more familiar to what general Android users are accustom too. The MIUI aspect comes in way of themes. No you can’t carry over your MIUI themes to this launcher sadly, but it does have a similar theme app. Giving you access to their online data base of pre-built themes. I counted 11 current full themes to choose from including an Ice Cream Sandwich theme that looks amazing. There is a wallpaper section with limited images available and there is also an icon background option. You can change the background of your icons with a transparent pallet, red frame, crystal tray or even select no background at all.

The launcher also offers a really nice looking control widget to toggle WiFi, 3G/2G Data, GPS and others. There is also a really nice one-click cleaner included. You can see just how much memory is being sucked up right on your home screen and simply tap it to clean up some of those running apps. In the settings of the launcher you can set up white list applications that the cleaner won’t stop.

There was only one thing that was sort of disappointing, but definitely doesn’t detour me from using this as my new favorite launcher. The weather widget which is included in the launcher won’t pull data for the US. Not a big deal really, I just switched back to HD widgets and I am all set. Kinda sad though cause the widget looks pretty sweet.

I generally don’t spend much time going over a launcher, I leave the decision-making up to you guys. This launcher is really friggin nice though. Super fast, no lag, and very customizable. This is easily an app that I suggest everyone tries out. Head over to melvinchng’s XDA thread for the install apk. I’d normally just link the file, but he has already made an update in the last 24 hours to the first release and I’d hate for anyone to miss out on the latest version. Let us know what you think of this launcher in the comments below.

While this app may not be useful to everyone out there, the concept is still pretty cool and could be quite useful for those who handle event management, ticket tracking, workshops, etc.

So, what is Eventbrite? It’s a service that allows you to create and manage events, sell tickets, and keep track of attendees. The Eventbrite Easy Entry Android app is a key part of the service, as it allows you to scan the QR codes from tickets, essentially keeping up with who is there. The app syncs back to Eventbrite’s servers in real time, which means you…

Logitech may have said that launching the Revue was "a mistake of implementation of gigantic nature" and that it has chosen to ditch Google TV entirely, but it has, thankfully, decided against reneging on its promise of one more software update. And, yes, said software update is exactly the one that was shown to us back at the end of October: the one that brings an updated, usable interface and – drumroll please – Android Market integration.

Indeed, as indicated in the above tweet from the official @GoogleTV Twitter account, the update will…

Logitech may have said that launching the Revue was "a mistake of implementation of gigantic nature" and that it has chosen to ditch Google TV entirely, but it has, thankfully, decided against reneging on its promise of one more software update. And, yes, said software update is exactly the one that was shown to us back at the end of October: the one that brings an updated, usable interface and – drumroll please – Android Market integration.

Indeed, as indicated in the above tweet from the official @GoogleTV Twitter account, the update will…

Many of you might remember when we posted up a look at an application by cloud.tv called HD widgets. They were a beautiful set of customizable widgets designed to be used on those extremely Hi-Res screens found on your tablet. With various settings and sizes to help you finally use up some of that extra screen space with something that brilliant enough to look good big.Many of you responded saying that they replaced Beautiful Widgets on your tablet. I know the devs loved hearing that.

When we first saw these widgets I was excited and disappointed at the same time. They were only available for Honeycomb tablets, which I do not have. So I stared at them for a while and said, “Someday.” Well, that day has finally come. Cloud.tv has been hard at work since their initial launch to bring the same great look and customization to all tablets and phones. Since we already covered the tablet version a while back, you can read up on that here, we will focus this release solely on the new phone support instead.

First off, they didn’t separate the application into two versions. The same great application that you may have already purchased will now be available in your apps section to install on your phone. Right there makes it a must have for anyone that has a phone and a tablet or even plan to get a tablet at a later date. They didn’t focus their efforts on only Hi-Res devices either. The application is support on anything running Android 2.1 and up. Along with support for both HDPI and MDPI devices. With the update and the various screen sizes and resolutions, some of the widgets will look different then what you might see on a tablet. Rightfully so too, we don’t have a ton of real estate available on a 4-inch screen, but we still want it to look good.

You have five widgets sizes to choose from, 1X1, 2X1, 4X1, 4X2 and 4X4. Each widget size offers your a different look with different abilities. For instance, the 1X1 widget has a small weather icon with the Hi and Low temps along with the current temp. You can choose from 13 different backgrounds from blue, black, semi transparent to fully transparent. In the 1X1 category you can also select a switch (toggle) button instead. With the same custom background selection.

Moving up the list increases the availability of more custom options for layouts, toggles, weather info and clocks. Every single one displays crisp clean graphics that look amazing on your screen. Tapping on the widget will offer various access to your device. Tap on the clock and you are taken into your alarms, tap on the weather and you can see the 5 day forecast, sunset and sunrise times, pressure, Humidity, wind speed and direction. If you haven’t already been stuck for hours setting them up and customizing them to look exactly how you want, don’t forget to hit the menu key while in the app too. There are more settings to adjust. Refresh time, temperature units, time and date format and weather service just to name a few.

In addition to launching various phone versions, they have also created a set for 7″ tablets as well. Adding in three more widgets for you to use on the mid sized screens. Take a look at some screen shots below to get a closer look at the various options available -

So far I have had no issues running these widgets on my Vibrant. I know they work great on the T-Mobile G2 as well. We weren’t able to test them on a 7″ tablet or MDPI device, but we are certain their attention to detail will provide you with a great experience. You really should pick these widgets up if you are looking for something that is made well, looks great and has great support.

Once a device become “PlayStation Certified” it gains access to Sony’s PlayStation Suite, a service that at the moment features mostly ports of older PS titles. Soon, the PlayStation Suite will expand to host offerings from developers deemed fit for the honor. The process starts now, as the PlayStation Suite SDK has gone into beta. Sony is now accepting applications from would-be developers of games for the likes of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and the PlayStation Vita, a non-Android handheld gaming system. That is correct, games accepted into the PlayStation Suite will be available cross-platform on both PlayStation Certified Android devices and the upcoming portable gaming system developed by Sony. Devs won’t need Sony hardware to develop games, but they will need a working knowledge of the C# programming language. Follow the source link below to start the journey.

The Super AMOLED Plus display used in Samsung’s Galaxy S II is hands-down one of the best mobile displays on the market, but for some it isn’t living up to expectations. Specifically, T-Mobile users are noticing some differences between what appears on their version of the device compared to the handset on other carriers. An in-depth comparison is underway over at XDA featuring several side-by-side looks at just how T-Mobile’s GS2 is missing the mark.

Color reproduction and contrast is a major issue, but under certain circumstance strange artifacts such as lines and blobs are known to appear on screen. There is no way to know exactly what is going on. It could be a totally hardware-based problem, but if there is a software fix, devs are already hard at work to find it.

If you are one of the more general users of the Android platform, than news of source codes being released doesn’t mean much of anything to you. If you happen to be knee deep in development and trying your best to make our devices perform the way they should have already, than this is the kind of news you love to hear about.

It seems that HTC has just drop source for a number of newer devices along with some older devices as well. With so many to choose from how will the devs ever get any rest? You guys have to sleep sometime don’t you? Check out the list of the most recently released source -

Should be an interesting next few weeks for the devs. I expect to see a lot of new integration and cross porting before the end of the month.Hit the source below to get over to the right place to pick up the code you so desperately want to mess around with.